Some Green Beans

Back on the prompts for today, I’ve made this little handful of green beans. Not in an actual hand, of course, as it was all I could do to figure out which bean I was painting in this crazy cluster. But green beans are definitely on the menu as Thanksgiving approaches here next week. These usually come in the form of a green bean casserole, which, when I was kid, consisted of combining cans of green beans with cans of cream of mushroom soup. Mushrooms don’t really have cream, so the last can was a bit of misnomer. It was more of a concoction of ingredients with a bit of dehydrated cream to live up to the name. I never really liked it very much and thought it was weird. Then Philippe, who as a Paris native had never celebrated Thanksgiving, grew keen to the idea of reproducing the classic dishes. His version was not canned, created entirely from scratch, and tasted amazing. It was like I was experiencing this classic for the very first time. So now, I’m a confirmed fan, but only if it’s sans can.

For those of you who regularly visit the site, you might notice some problems accessing it at times these last couple of days. There’s an issue for some with uploading art in the existing gallery and I’m still waiting for the plugin developers to return my email. In the meantime, not being one who likes to simply wait around, I’m tinkering with new and improved options as a backup. So hang in there with me as I try to figure it all out. As it turns out, painting a cluster of green beans is far easier than trying to debug an increasingly complex website. But, I’m confident I’ll soon be able to come up with a solution and get things running properly again. Thanks so much for your patience. Since I’m not a web developer, creating this new iteration of the site is a bit like making a casserole. You gleefully combine all of the ingredients and hope for the best. But sometimes, things don’t always work as as you imagined.

At family gatherings, this would happen quite a bit. There would always be that dish that someone would bring, smiling mysteriously as if daring you to guess what was actually in it. Many times, even tasting it failed to give up the mystery, and many other times the taste was something you wished had never happened. Of course, one never reveals this so we would all nod with mouthfuls of whatever it was, and make overly dramatic yum yum sounds. The bringer of the dish, certain it was a new classic, never stopped for a moment to think our yum yums might be contrived. And in the end, everyone was happy. This probably constitutes a white lie, but sometimes these are what keep families together. There was really no point in discussing our discomfort in that moment, and it was much more joyful to giggle on the inside. I really miss those moments. These days, our family is too far to visit during the holidays, so there’s no chance of reliving those times. But I still think of them often and it warms my heart, each time I see a handful of green beans.

Yum to homemade green bean casserole – none of those floppy, salty canned green beans here! I even make my own cream sauce to add and use less of it. Thanks for working so hard on this website, Charlie, and it definitely is worth the wait – just like green bean casserole with fewer processed ingredients!

I have to admit that one of my very favorite food memories is the sweet potato casserole covered in pounds of marshmallows toasted in the oven. What better way to ruin a perfectly healthy vegetable than to cover it with marshmallows?

Oh wow!! I never liked that one… just couldn’t develop a taste for it, though it showed up many times at family gatherings! 😊hehe But it sounds like something a kid or inner child should love for sure!

Thanks so much, Jacob! 😃💕 hehe… yeah… the site is experiencing a bit of growing pains, but I’m trying to sort them all out. And yay… you actually like green beans?! Alas, if only you could have some ice cream for dessert! 😉hehe

Green beans look good enough to eat. Family dinners hold great memories. Favorite foods and silly family jokes, usually my Dad and Uncle told the same ones year after year. Your blogs always bring back memories.

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